The Senate Intelligence committe is holding "closed door meetings" on a proposal to renew the expiring provisions of the USA-PATRIOT Act (AKA, Fascists' Toolkit Act) and also expand the "government's terrorism powers" as the New York Times calls it (deliberate? an oversight? you decide).
This has not gotten a lot of press, and that which is known has been provided officials who have "insisted on anonymity because the proposal remains confidential"
A google news search on the terms "Patriot," "Act" and "Renewal" combined with the phrase "Senate Intelligence Committee" turned up only nine hits.
Hearings are to be held next week. More info below the fold.
You can read all the articles by clicking on this search
result link but here are snips of some of the news reporting:
Boston Globe, IMHO, has the best article in the "Mainstream Media" category:
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury.
Much of the debate in Congress has concerned possibly limiting some of the powers in the antiterrorism law passed 45 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
But the measure being written by Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, would give the FBI new power to issue administrative subpoenas, which are not reviewed by a judge or grand jury, according to aides for the GOP majority on the committee who briefed reporters yesterday. The subpoenas would allow the agency to quickly obtain records, electronic data, or other evidence in terrorism investigations.
[...]Roberts's planned bill also would make it easier for prosecutors to use special court-approved warrants for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies in criminal cases, the committee aides said.
Eight expiring sections of the law that deal with foreign intelligence investigations would become permanent, they said. So, too, would a provision authorizing wiretapping of suspected terrorists who operate without clear ties to a particular terrorist network.
The rest of the report includes quotes from both sides - but there are more quotes from critics than supporters, including a little gem that former GOP Representative Bob Barr "said he was distressed that the committee 'would do something like this in secret'." (he's shocked, shocked, I tell you! that the GOP would try to keep their underhanded activities secret.)
The New York Times apparently got a draft of the proposal, but their article focuses on only one small part of it: the mail tracking provision, with an innocuous headline "Plan to Let F.B.I. Track Mail in Terrorism Inquiries" buried in the "Washington" section. It doesn't appear on their daily "top headlines" email, and doesn't appear in the front page - either the top "call out" listings or in the section listings. On the Section front, it is not one of the "blurbed" articles, but rather in the listing below the blurbed articles. I don't see this setting off the alarm bells that it should. Although the actual article does mention some of the other provisions, it's a real question in my mind as to whether readers will get that far. A snip from the first few paragraphs seems to convey the notion of "oh, yeah, this is happening too, if you're interested in that sort of thing" - you can almost hear the implied yawn:
WASHINGTON, May 20 - The F.B.I. would gain broad authority to track the mail of people in terror investigations under a Bush administration proposal, officials said Friday, but the Postal Service is already raising privacy concerns about the plan.
The proposal, to be considered next week in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would allow the bureau to direct postal inspectors to turn over the names, addresses and all other material appearing on the outside of letters sent to or from people connected to foreign intelligence investigations.
The plan would effectively eliminate the postal inspectors' discretion in deciding when so-called mail covers are needed and give sole authority to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, if it determines that the material is "relevant to an authorized investigation to obtain foreign intelligence," according to a draft of the bill.
The proposal would not allow the bureau to open mail or review its content. Such a move would require a search warrant, officials said.
Compare this to the best (IMHO) of the alternative media's 9-alarm-fire coverage - Counterpunch's article entitled "The Senate Intelligence Committee's Secret Session: The Plot to Make the PATRIOT Act Even Worse"
Dave Lindorff jumps right in by highlighting the method by which this is being done - with secrecy, misdirection, and surprise. These methods are a big part of the problem in trying to keep up with what's being done to us in these days of GOP distraction and misdirection:
In a stunning slap at the democratic legislative process, the Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), has suddenly and quietly scheduled a closed-door session for this Thursday to mark up its version of a renewed USA PATRIOT ACT, the frankenstein legacy of former Attorney General John Ashcroft and his then assistant Michael Chertoff (now secretary of Homeland Security).
The controversial act, many provisions of which seriously undermine basic Constitutional rights and protections, was just being examined in hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee headed by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), where it came under heavy criticism from both right and left. Both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees have jurisdiction over the act, but the Judiciary committee, with its open hearings, was widely seen as having primacy.
[...]This surprise move by the Intelligence Committee, which is packed with senators from both parties who have not been particularly friendly to civil libertarians, appears to be an end run by supporters of the White House.
Lindorff goes on to detail some of the most egregious provisions, by way of an ACLU lobbyist on intelligence matters, Lisa Graves:
Graves says the move suggests that the administration and its congressional backers fear that they could lose in the Judiciary Committee, and are hoping to present the bill they want as a fait accompli and then call anyone who tries to weaken it "soft on terror."
"This is a radical bill," Graves says of the Intelligence Committee work-in-progress. She says her sources tell her that besides making the controversial sunset provisions of the PATRIOT Act permanent, the Intelligence Committee version of the revised act would greatly expand one of its most dangerous provisions, the administrative subpoena. "It would allow administrative subpoenas for virtually anything held by a third party, such as bank or phone or medical records, with only the merest unsubstantiated hint of a foreign connection." Equally troubling, she says, the Intelligence Committee version of the bill would strip out a current bar on using warrantless administrative subpoenas in cases that involved primarily protected First Amendment activities, such as legitimate political protest.
"I guess now we'll have to see whether the people on the Judiciary Committee will have the political courage to stand up to this," says Graves.
One of my Senators, Carl Levin, is on the committee. I'm writing to see if I can get any more information, but since it's classified as "secret" due to the fact that it relates to "intelligence matters" I'm not particularly optimistic about getting any.
There probably isn't a lot we can do at this point, except letting our Senators know that we are watching, and we are aware that this is in the pipeline, despite their efforts to prevent us from knowing anything about it. That, in itself, helped to at least delay the introduction of the so called "Domestic Security Enhancement Act" in early 2003. (For a review of that, read the original "leak" by The Center for Public Integrity here or see the ACLU's "Interested Persons' Memo "Section-by-Section Analysis of Justice Department draft 'Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003,' also known as 'PATRIOT Act II'" from February of 2003.)
I know that the filibuster fight is important, as are many other things. But please take a moment to write to your Senator to oppose this bill before it becomes the "fait accompli" the reich wing hopes to make it. And if your Senator is one of those on the Intelligence Committe, it's even more important to contact them - perhaps we can prevent it from ever being reported out of the committe (which, IMHO, would be the best outcome possible at this point I doubt it can be killed outright, but if it can be confined long enough for the Judiciary committee to mark up a less egregious bill, that bill will give the non-fascist Republicans "cover" for voting against this bill). Here are the names of the Senate Intelligence committee members, phone/fax numbers and webmail/email addresses can be obtained by going to this page of Juan Cabanela's totally fantastic Contacting The Congress site:
Majority Members (Republicans)
Pat Roberts (R-KS) [Chairman]
Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT)
Mike DeWine (R-OH)
Christopher S. Bond (R-MO)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Minority Members (Democrats)
John D. Rockefeller, IV (D-WV) [Vice Chairman]
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD)
Jon S. Corzine (D-NJ)
Please also consider recommending this diary so that more people have at least a chance of seeing it. (Although I'd be the first to admit, I am not worthy! I am not worthy! since I rarely post or comment, although I do read every day. But I ask, even so. IMHO, this is important enough to grovel a bit, if it helps get the word out!)